iFixit Teardown: M1 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Internals Nearly Identical to Intel Models

iFixit today shared a teardown overview of the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, giving us a peek at what's under the hood. For the most part, these machines look the same as older Intel MacBooks inside, but there are a few highlights.

ifixit m1 macbook teardown
The removal of the fan is the biggest change to the ‌MacBook Air‌, with the fan having been replaced by an aluminum spreader located to the left of the logic board.

A thick cold plate over the M1 processor draws heat via conduction to its flatter, cooler end, where it can safely radiate away. Without a fan, this solution may take longer to cool off, and may cap out sooner, but by foregoing heatpipes or a vapor chamber, the sink also has more mass to saturate with thermal energy. There are no moving parts, and nothing to break.

Aside from a new logic board and cooler, the inside of the ‌MacBook Air‌ is identical to its predecessor, and iFixit says that repair procedures "will likely remain almost totally unchanged."

As for the ‌MacBook Pro‌, it's so similar to the prior model that iFixit had to double check to make sure an old ‌MacBook Pro‌ hadn't been accidentally purchased.

iFixit expected to see some consolidation of MacBook parts and design, but the cooling setup is similar to what's seen in Intel MacBook models. The fan, in fact, is identical to the fan in the 2020 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ released earlier this year.

While the internals of the ‌MacBook Air‌ and ‌MacBook Pro‌ are close to identical to their Intel counterparts, iFixit did take a look at the all-new M1 chip, which is the shiny silver bit with an Apple logo. Next to the chip, there are small silicon rectangles that are Apple's integrated memory chips.

iFixit says the integrated memory is "slightly devastating" because it makes repairs on the ‌M1‌ Macs much harder. Note that there's no Apple-designed T2 chip in the ‌M1‌ Mac models because the T2 security functionality is integrated right into the ‌M1‌ chip.

m1 chip ifixit
iFixit says that while these seem like superficial changes, they're an expression of "years of intense work" with "hints of a lot more to come in the future." Head over to iFixit to read the full teardown.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Tag: iFixit
Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...

Top Rated Comments

ghanwani Avatar
57 months ago
why do they say the macbook air is fanless? i'm still a fan.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
seeforyourself Avatar
57 months ago
I'm just shocked apple didn't make the battery smaller, because you know....
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AustinIllini Avatar
57 months ago

why do they say the macbook air is fanless? i'm still a fan.
FFS

That's just brutal
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
57 months ago
what has been said before: only change what is absolutely necessary to avoid introducing more variables that can cause issues - makes total sense that they are so similar, old and new, in this first generation ...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FranApple Avatar
57 months ago

I don't like the "half-covered" look of the M1..

And I'm wondering how big the actual die of the M1 is? Who does the chip teardown?
Right. Because you have to look at the CPU every day? :)
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Saturnine Avatar
57 months ago
I remember a certain YouTube channel with the initials “LTT” speculating a long time ago that the internals of newer MacBook Pro’s seemed to be designed for a possible Apple chip as the cooling seemed insufficient for the Intel chips installed.

That does appear to have some merit given how few changes Apple have had to make to integrate the M1.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)